It's Beginnng to Look a lot like Christmas!!!

The Richard Family tree is up and there are even some gifts starting to appear underneath it.  We are loving this time of year and soaking up "everything Christmas".  A few season favorites at our home this year:
-Peppermint Mocha's (ok that one is Julie's)
-Christmas cocktails (Hot cocoa and rum, White Russians)
-Amy Grant Christmas Collection CD (yes people still buy CD's....well I do at least)
-Our first Christmas as a family of 3
-Our sweet little angel
-The excitement and anticipation of "going home" to Chicago this weekend!!! 

Pretty excited about his first stocking!

Here is Coop opening his first Christmas presents (a little early I know) from Aunt Kristel

Like my Reindeer Antlers?!

 True to his bib, Coop is pretty much always jolly!

We hope you are all getting in the Christmas spirit, because as we like to say around here, "Tis the Season"!  So if you are having a bad day or feeling a little low, shake of the Grinchness, have a hot cup of Cocoa, thank the good God above for sweet baby Jesus, and give your loved ones a kiss., because, yep, you guessed it, Tis the Season!

And to our amazing families, we will see you in 3 days!  We are counting them down, Coop can't wait to see everyone and we are long overdue for a visit to our hometown.  Until then, love you all!

Happy Boy

These pictures don't need much of an explanation....... we have a very happy 7 month old on our hands.  He loves the holidays, that's for sure.  It doesn't take much to make this litte guy smile and it melts your heart every time. 

Here's a few other happenings from the Richard household:

The tree went up (can you spot Coop in this picture?)

We got to hang out with our good friend John who was visiting from Chicago (John got Coop this Papillion highschool tee that he's sporting)

As you can see, John thinks the shirt is pretty cool

Cooper's girl Jayla Mei celebrated her 1st birthday in California, but since we couldn't be there to celebrate, Coop picked this hat out for her

We made it to 7 Months!  As Grandma put it, we are past the half year mark, so crazy to think!!

 We sit up in the bath now! Although be careful, I am slippery when wet!

 And we put EVERYthing in our mouth, from bath toys......

 to the hair washer device... to washcloths
 (the washcloth is his absolute favorite, which is kind of gross I realize, he loves to suck on it whether wet or soapy or dirty.......and it usually ends up burping up a little bath water about 20 minutes after his bath.  Please don't judge me.......or my parenting skills.......)

Lots to be Thankful For!

We had such a wonderful holiday weekend so we wanted to share a few thoughts and pictures from the weekend.  So here is what we are most thankful for this year.....

1. This guy.  Yep, our amazing hubby and daddy.  He is just our #1 joy and always is making us laugh, keeping life fun and interesting!  He is a gracious host, loves to entertain, the life of the party, and an amazing dad and husband.  Cooper just adores him (and so do I obviously), and when he gets home at night Coop is all smiles!  We love you!!  (Here he is dressed to clean gutters and hang Christmas lights, how can he not make you smile?)

2. Sleeping In.  It doesn't happen a lot in our house where the 3 of us all get to sleep in, but Thanksgiving morning we got to all snuggle in bed together for a short bit.  Then we headed out for a little family turkey trot before we were off to Aunt Connie's house.

3. Extended Family.  No need to explain much here, but we got to enjoy an amazing Thanksgiving dinner made by Aunt Connie with the Richard side this year.  Coop even got some 2nd cousin playtime in, and got some love from Great Grandma Norma (as always we missed Grandpa Rusty, who Coop is named after....Raymond)  It was your typical day of eating and lounging, oh except for the small excitement of shooting the skunk in the middle of it.  Yep, there was a skunk outside near Andy's uncle's hunting dogs, so to make sure they didn't get sprayed, the boys got out the ole' shotguns and took care of him right in the backyard!  Only in Nebraska.....  ;)

 

Cooper and Kennedy (only a few weeks apart)

4. Good Friends and Fun Rivalry.  Our dear friends the Connell's (huge Iowa Fans) came to visit and we all headed to Lincoln on Friday for the Nebraska v. Iowa Game.  We had a full house with everyone here but we love entertaining and loved every second of it.

Before heading off for the game.  Everyone is still happy here ;)

Even though the Huskers pulled off the victory, everyone was still in high spirits!

The Gentlemen (Johnny C you were missed)

The Ladies (we miss you Ali and Marjorie!)

Love these two so much.  We always have so much fun with them and now seek their parenting advice as much as we can.  They are the best!

5. Game Night!

Even Coop got in on the card game.  He wasn't so good at not showing people his cards though!

Ahhh it was a good Thanksgiving.   Hope yours was full of good food, family, friends, and fun as well!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.....

We were lucky to have a visit from Grandma this week, and as always, she helped out a ton and we loved every second of her visit!  Not only did she help out with the cooking, cleaning, and laundry, but she also gave lots and lots of love to Coop.  And..........she made the "suggestion" that we should think about cutting his hair.  We did agree it had been getting a bit scraggly lately, and we even had a friend mention that he liked the grunge look we were rocking with Coop!  So after a weak attempt of Andy and I trimming it with large kitchen shears, Grandma and I stopped in to good ole' Super Cuts.  I was still having a hard time with the fact that we were cutting my 6month old's hair, but it was necessary. 


Check out the before pic below, you'll see why.

  

Waiting to get my hair cut with Grandma

Thank goodness I got to sit on mommy's lap at least!

I had to have a little taste of my smock of course!

 

And the After Pic.....Coop isn't quite sure about the new dew





Love love love this shot.....I came around the corner and saw this scene, and just had to capture it.  I just loved the fact that my mom was in my kitchen making a delicious dinner for us while my precious angel was just hanging out with her, playing at her feet.  Thanks mom for being our cook and babysitter at the same time!!

Over the past week we also celebrated two big moments in our sibling's lives.  Bryan played in his final college football game in Des Moines, Iowa and Kristel celebrated her 30th birthday! Bryan has played 8 years of competitive football which included a State Title, several injuries and some surgeries, and hundreds of amazing tackles and plays over the years, we are so proud of him!  As Andy put it, "thanks for living out my dream for me".  What an accomplishment!  And Kristel, well, 30 is 30, enough said!   We are lucky and blessed to be so close with all of our siblings and share in their lives.   And of course we captured numerous pictures of the moments......

The whole group cheering on Bryan at Drake



Check out our studly brother, top left





Coop was pretty excited that GG and Grandpa were at the game too, who would have known!?

Thanks for keeping me warm GG. Love you!

 Taking a snooze in GG's lap

 Taking another snooze in Grandma' lap.  Wow, these grandmas are really good at putting me to sleep!

 Aunt Heather giving me some licorice, this is awesome, mom never lets me have this stuff! You are the best, Aunt Heath!

Getting in some good bonding time with Grandpa B.

 Hi Uncle John! (ok technically "future" uncle, but that's too many words for me to say right now)

Awww, you two are cute.   Happy 30th Kristel!

And just because I realized we hardly had any pictures of Dad (and he was feeling left out after checking out the new post) we had to add this one in.........here I am trying on a new hat.